Feoffment - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition feoffment

Definition :

Feoffment [fr. feoffare, to give a feud,] the transfer of freehold land, in ancient times, by word of mouth and livery of seisin, i.e., by the delivery to the transferee of corporal possession of the land or tenement; see 2 Bl. Com. 310. Writing and deed (theretofore having become gradually more usual) were successively required by the (English) Statute of Frauds (29 Car. 2, c. 3, s. 1), and the (English) Real Property Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 106), s. 3; and by s. 2 of the latter Act, all real property, as regards conveyance of the immediate freehold thereof, is transferable as well by grant as by livery, so that a transfer by deed alone is all that is necessary, and transfer by livery, though not in terms abolished, became obsolete before the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 51, which declares that all lands and interests therein lie in grant and are incapable of being conveyed by livery or by livery and seisin, or by feoffment, and by s. 52 all conveyances of land or any interest therein are void in respect of the legal estate unless made by deed except as setout in the section. See also REGISTRATION OF LAND.

A feoffment was a conveyance which might have had a tortious effect, and if a person attempted to convey by it a greater freehold than he had, he forfeited the estate of which he was seised; but it became a rightful (droiturel) or innocent conveyance, transferring only the estate which the feoffor could lawfully convey and so causing no forfeiture; see (English) Real Property Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 106), s. 4.

The act of conveying a freehold estate, a grant of land in fee simple, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.